Based on this WSJ article, America Has Pulled Off the Impossible. It Made Getting a Passport Simple, I learned that it’s now possible to renew your US Passport online. I thought this was too good to be true so I tried going through the process. I found out I was eligible!
The main points of eligibility are below. Too bad you cannot do this for kids. - The passport you are renewing is or was valid for 10 years, and you are age 25 or older. - The passport you are renewing is either expiring within one year or has expired less than five years ago. - You are not changing your name, sex, date of birth, or place of birth. - You are not traveling for at least 6 weeks from the date you will submit your application. We will only offer routine service, and the time it takes to get a passport will be the same as renewing by mail.
The process was pretty easy on a phone:
- fill out some personal data
- take a picture of yourself (the service will automatically crop your picture). Though it doesn’t accept HEIC images, only JPEG less than 10mb so I had to convert HEIC to JPEG and shrink it a little to upload it.
The application process was relatively pain-free and I was delightfully surprised. Gone are the days of making an appointment at a post office, paying for passport pictures. Love it.
Timeline:
- 2025-07-07 - Applied, Payment Pending
- 2025-07-09 - U.S. Department of State has received your application. Application Status: In Process
- 2025-07-10, 8pm - Approved
- 2025-07-10, 10:30pm - Shipped
- 2025-07-11 - Printing and preparing to give it to you. (I thought it was shipped already??)
- 2025-07-15 - Received the passport in the mail!